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www.wilderness-sportsman.com (news section)
"There are plenty of other arguments in favor of roadless areas, including the basic fact that truly wild areas won’t be part of our descendants’ lives unless we act to preserve them. Although some would contend that areas for logging and other natural resources shouldn’t be “locked away,” the remaining roadless areas in Montana are without roads because over the years nobody could figure how the land could be exploited at a profit.
In any event, federal land already has more than enough roads. The National Forest in Montana has more than 32,531 miles of them, and there currently is a $558 million cumulative road maintenance backlog in the state. According to a National Forest report, Forest Service roads receive only 29.2 percent of the maintenance budget they need to keep them safe and usable. In the last fiscal year, the Helena National Forest and the Lewis and Clark National Forest were budgeted to maintain only 10 to 15 percent of their existing 4,500-mile federal road network."
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